They were disciplined, self-sufficient, preternaturally competent. Scouts slinked into enemy territory to gather intelligence or cut supply lines, or roamed the no man’s land around camp to keep watch. One admirer would describe him as “emphatically a man’s man: able, active, alert.” The impression he gave was immediately one of “force and self-control.”īurnham had risen to fame as a scout-an esteemed breed of solitary wayfinder and spy with no exact analog in contemporary warfare. He looked bronzed and weather-beaten, like a living monument to those campaigns, and though small-he was only about five foot four-his presence was imposing. I The Most Complete Human Being Who Ever Livedįrederick Russell Burnham didn’t like public speaking, but he arrived at the Maryland Hotel, in Pasadena, California, on the night of September 19, 1910, determined to communicate a few clear and uncontroversial truths.īurnham was 49 years old-a frontiersman and soldier of fortune who’d spent his life leaping into conflicts with American Indians and colonial wars in Africa. But it was completely reasonable, too.Īll I can say is, try to keep that in mind. That said, this is the story of one idea that looked ridiculous and didn’t come true. These two men will seem larger than life, but they lived at a time, a hundred years ago, when, I would argue, life in America seemed larger than life-when what was unimaginable still felt feasible and ideas that looked ridiculous could still come true. And while I worked hard to verify the rest, doing so occasionally proved futile. Most of those details are irrefutable, though. This is a true story, and a very serious one, even though it’s composed of many details that will seem ludicrous and impossible. The other, I discovered, was a megalomaniac and a pathological liar. He tried to leave detailed, reliable accounts of what he did and thought and felt. One of these men was a humble patriot, known for his impeccable integrity. And yet, somehow throughout their long lives-as several volatile phases of American history tumbled along in the background-they also had a way of continually snapping back together. They were like repulsive magnets: Some fundamental property of each was perfectly opposed to the core of the other. Whatever strange bond these two men had, they were loyal to it. But then, eventually, they’d be driven into opposition again. Eccentric circumstances-circumstances having to do with hippopotamuses-would join these men together as allies and even dear friends. Each wanted to kill the other and fully expected to feel really good about himself afterward. This is a story about hippopotamuses, as advertised, but it’s also a story about two very complicated and exceptional men.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |